Is there a Joseph in the house?

[AtomicKitKat]

I had this dream a couple nights ago, and it's way too vivid, and I personally don't feel like posting it on some of the other boards that I frequent, since the maturity levels there are lower.

I may or may not have interpreted part of the dream myself, but I won't be posting my interpretation until at least a few posts. Also, I apologise in advance if this is unsuitable for the forum.(feel free to delete, moderators, although I would appreciate a quick message informing me of such, especially if there are responses.)

Backstory(necessary to understand the significance of a character):

A few(10 actually) years ago, I, shall we say, "pursued" a girl in my class. By "pursue" I meant following her about, essentially stalking her(although I tried hard to keep from doing anything beyond looking, and succeeded) Needless to say, this girl never returned my attentions. I lost contact with her after our school days, only meeting her once on a bus(this last meeting was about 6 years ago)

End backstory.

Dream(parts that I remember or somehow erroneously added during the pre-awakening phase)

The girl and I are on some kind of hilltop military camp thingy(wire fences, wide open space though) Neither of us are in uniform(I can't remember what either of us were wearing, except it did not resemble military uniforms) Somehow, I sense sadness from her. Faceless people are packing their belongings into a vehicle. "Suddenly"(I mean that I sort of expected this, although it took me by surprise within the dream), she starts running downhill. I run in the opposite direction, but turn downhill after a brief period, "eventually"(in a "compressed dream time" of about 5 seconds) catching up to her. We walk along in silence for a long time, sometimes glancing at one another, but that's about where my recollection ends.

Could someone explain the dream to me? Feel free to use the messaging system, if you think it's too private to reveal the information in public.

[Occhidiangela]

1. Dreams are chaotic critters, but it is obvious that this lady is still on your mind. Dream interpretation is not my forte, however, your subconscious mind seems to be telling you that your feelings for her are still near the surface. Have you considered seeking her out.

2. Or maybe it is as simple as "Too Much Caffeine!" :)

[AtomicKitKat]

I guess a little additional info is required.

I used to be rather on the "evil" side. Not gang "evil", but more along the lines of "screw you plebians, I think my spells will work" type of "evil" Suffice to say, she was an "angel" as far as I was concerned. During my last year of school with her(the 4th year of knowing her) she invited me to join her church group. This wasn't your garden variety Christianity group. I've been to those before, when I was MUCH younger, and this was definitely quite far from it. The "cell-meeting" wasn't too bad. Sorta like a "introduce yourself" party. What bothered me was the actual church going the next day(Sunday) The singing of the hymns seemed okay. A little "gospel"/modern, IMO, but nothing out of the ordinary. What bothered me was the "tongues" and "trances"(the "pastor" or whoever he was, would tap a parishioner on the forehead, and they'd pass out, into the arms of someone waiting behind to catch them) Suffice to say, I tried to think of whatever excuse possible and skedaddled as soon as the service was over. I have however, found myself wondering what WOULD have happened had I chosen to join her(She was not a bad person. To me, she could do no wrong. I'm not really sure what to make of the religion though. My brother "converted" kind of, to Christianity shortly after he entered the university. I'm not certain if he's in the same group as the one that I avoided. I have avoided following him along to them, as I feel that he needs to learn these things for himself, no matter how gullible my parents or I think he is)

Disclaimer: While I am not particularly enamoured of the X faith, being an atheist, I am also a "liberal" at heart, believing that each person should believe what they want. This is not a slam against any religion in particular.(moderators, I'm trying to be as accurate as possible, so please, instead of deleting, replace the religion with just the word "religion", if it's offensive. I'm not hundred percent sure if it's against the rules, I'm just trying to be accurate)

[kandrathe]

I think you have thought of some of the answers yourself. The girl might represent "purity" which you ran from, and are now not unwilling to walk with. Or, the girl might represent your "Id" denied or libido at some level, and your dream is an expression of your Id sense of its own loss. In a way, mourning the loss of the unrecanted love. If it is a reoccuring dream, then you might have some work to do on your psyche, or that is, to let go of your past and move on.

I see dream states as a window to primal motivations -- that is, not only sexual, but the need for nurture, security, to belong, to have a purpose. As children we learn to supress our desires to be "proper" according to social mores, but in dream states and in more distorted ways through intoxication our primal desires are released.

[AtomicKitKat]

Waiting for more opinions. Will sort through them around Thursday(should have about 5 by then) and try to figure out the common portions.

[Archon_Wing]

WARNING: I DO NOT HAVE A PHD
You have been warned

I feel that you are recollecting a sense of loss. I wouldn't know that much, since I don't know about your personal life, but did you end up with her on a good note? I think that it might be that thinking about this personal causes sad thoughts. But perhaps, she was some kind of idealized form of something that you might wanted a long time ago. I'm guessing by your dsescription, she represented this "purity" or angelic being,which you never got to be with, which might suggest regret of something you never got to be or got to do. I somehow think that you are thinking about the ideal, not necessarily her.

Well, that's what I think when things/people run away from me in dreams.

Sorry for rambling, I need more background [/nosy] :D

[AtomicKitKat]

Grr, lost what I wanted to post.

I KNEW she wasn't "perfect" per se, but her "imperfections" were far too minor to be of concern(I considered her smart, although not necessarily smarter than myself)

Did I mention her birthday was 4 days after mine? :P

Picture(I shrank it down, so hopefully I won't exceed any bandwidth with yahoo)

http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/3fde17ba_5212/...fGPj3_AdsGitzNp

The one on the right is me at age 13, just in case anyone is confused. :P

[Occhidiangela]

Were you looking at her as a "whole person" or were you worshipping an idealized facet of her?

In short, how well did you get to know her? If not well, then you may be "obsessing" over an image, not a person, and are dealing with the same dream experience as a dream about Jennifer Love Hewitt or Michelle Pfeiffer or Halle Barry or Lucy Liu.

[AtomicKitKat]

Well, as a stalker, I did know a little more about her than perhaps she would have wanted me to. :P

Person to person, we hung out in different circles, but I did speak to her every now and then, since we WERE in the same class(unlike in the US, we didn't pick and choose our subjects back then) for the most part, and sat fairly near each other, thereby requiring some degree of interaction(example, if the teacher required 4 people per group, 80-90% likely we would be in the same group)

Okay, so I intentionally sat behind her during our 3rd and 4th years together. UNintentionally, we wound up next to each other during our 1st year together. I won't reveal either of our names, but suffice to say that if one wasn't paying attention to the teacher, it was easy enough to mishear one of our names as the other's. :P

I did hold her hand once, but it was for some dance thingy that one of our Phys Ed. teachers came up with during a rainy day. O_o

Was I obsessed with her? Yes. Was it an unhealthy obsession? I guess so, but I never did anything heavier than following her and finding out info. Not much more than a Private Investigator would do.

[Occhidiangela]

Tallking to her. :) Or maybe you did, and the vibes you got back were not of the resonant frequency that you were hoping for.

[AtomicKitKat]

Occhi: Maybe...

I got the general impression she didn't mind me as a friend, but nothing more. You know how girls are at that age, good-looking older guys are the most important things... which never bodes well for the scrawny little boy that I was back then.

[AtomicKitKat]

I'm still thinking about her every now and again, without realising it. And I'm almost sure I dreamed about her again a few times since my last post in this thread. Maybe I ought to just hypnotise myself to forget I ever knew her. :unsure:

[kandrathe]

My sister dated a guy in college for three years and it seemed he would never grow up and would never take life seriously. So she dumped him. It was hard for her, but she knew what she wanted and deserved in a relationship, and he was not it. Anyway, in a strange twist of fate I was working at this consulting firm when we hired a woman who was a dead ringer for my sister, and in fact she had the same first name. Very strange. Then at the Christmas party I meet her husband, the same guy who had dated my sister. Ok, so I was very freaked out. But, he had never gotten over her, and up until I left that firm he still inquired about her every time I saw him.

The point is -- Get over it or it will consume you and you will end up making the wrong choices in your life for the wrong reasons. You deserve a woman as good as the one you lost, but you cannot go back and get the one you lost. Move on, and make yourself the kind of guy that every woman wants.

[icelord]

As it says (in the title of my reply), just ignore me, but:

Dreams are only dreams, it's like watching TV while you are sleeping, so I suggest to enjoy the "TV" show that your brain are showing.

Bye

[*Hannya*]

Dreams arent just Dreams, in my humble opinion! dreams are mostly pictures of things that have already happened to you but in some kind of modified way.

but I also think you should follow Kandatre(sp?) advies and let it go.(I had the same thing-couldnt stop thinking about a girl) and indeed it will consume you and that is not a good thing because for example you will begin isolating yourself from other people and thus missing other good things in life.

Hannya

[Archon_Wing]

Dreams are only dreams, it's like watching TV while you are sleeping, so I suggest to enjoy the "TV" show that your brain are showing.

Without the commercials too! Too bad I can't remember most of them.

[AtomicKitKat]

Well, I had this dream, it seems I'm in a military barracks of some sort, except it's like no military barracks on Earth(that I know of), because it's a co-ed sleeping quarters(no, nothing naughty about this dream)

Well, anyway among some stuff that makes no sense, we have computers in the barracks, there's an announcement saying that the Start menu would be disabled from now on due to rampant abuse(no idea), and anyway, I get this impression that we're all packing up and going home. So, while we're sitting around discussing what we're gonna do when we get back, the dream takes a surreal turn(up till now it seemed fairly normal), and I suddenly find that we're partially immersed into this MMORPG that I was playing a couple years ago called Helbreath. A demon(wings, horns, big axe) comes wandering around the corner of the wall(Sort of like a hole in the wall between two rooms, connecting them), but nobody seems to notice or care. I jump into the fray, hacking away at the demon with a sword(small explanation here, in Helbreath, every 10 levels gave you a "critical credit", allowing you to do a "critical attack" for additional damage), and every time I hacked at it, there was a small explosion, causing the thing to be in permanent stunlock. I was joined by this person(whom I couldn't see, but I knew their name), Tireless, who also attacked this demon, but then he/she died. So, as with any other game, I hung around their body(again, I couldn't see who) After about 20 minutes, this young African woman comes up, introduces herself as Tamara, and thanks me for looking after her body.

Okay, here are a few things:

1) I've never met any females of African descent(that I know of) Heck, up until recently, I don't think I'd ever even met(online) ANYBODY of African descent, male OR female(one introduced himself to me as such, recently though)

2) While I have nothing against any race in particular, I've never found myself attracted to most females of African descent(exceptions include Aaliyah, Alicia Keys, and yes, Tamara/Tireless was attractive)

3) I've never spoken to or interacted with anyone of African descent offline.

4) Yes, I am well aware that technically, ALL of us are of African descent, but that's besides the point. For all intents and purposes, when I mention African descent in this post, I'm referring to the dark-skinned peoples of Africa.

5) Damn, am I being too politically correct?

[kandrathe]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Don't try to read something into every dream. Mostly they are a glimpse of what happens in random unfiltered synaptic activity. During waking some parts of the brain may still be inactive and thus we get glimpses of thought without "reason". There is a part of the brain which focuses thought to form words, sentences or our normal stream of thought. Almost everything else is filtered out. This also gives is our ability to concentrate. One function of sleep is that short term memories are replayed and connected or recorded as long term memories. Scientific studies have found that if a person is deprived of restful sleep for many days in a row, they overwhelm their short term memories and start to lose thier older learned information. Many times in sleep states our brain may be actively processing some random, or seemingly important information.

People frequently have "anxiety" related dreams when there is something stressful occuring in their lives, and I'm sure it is common with everyone reading this. In mid-December my wife and I lost a baby she had carried for 6-months thru pregnancy. It was a traumatic shock to us, and for weeks afterwards I had nightmares about accidents happening to my other two children. It was my brains way of processing thru that loss, and the projection of that loss into the loss of my other loved ones.